The Colorado Health Service Corps has awarded $726,100 in student loan repayment funds to 17 substance use disorder health care professionals who will, in exchange, practice in some of Colorado’s most medically underserved communities for the next three years.

The funding, provided by Senate Bill 18-204, is a response to the opioid crisis and other substance use trends across the state. The legislature allowed the Colorado Health Service Corps to expand access to behavioral health care providers in shortage areas of the state and to direct clinical practice incentives in those areas.

Colorado Health Service Corps is a network of health care professionals who serve Colorado communities most in need and seeks to improve access to affordable health services. The Corps uses clinician educational loan debt repayment to motivate more care and more access-to-care for low-income, publicly insured, uninsured and geographically isolated Coloradans.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Primary Care Office is using a new model to determine where behavioral health professional workforce shortages exist. To learn more about the State Designated Health Professional Shortage Area model, visit Board of Health or Secretary of State.

Applications for loan repayment typically are accepted from March to September each year. However, from Jan. 1 to Jan. 31, Colorado Health Service Corps will accept loan repayment applications during a special round specifically for health care providers who are regularly engaged in substance use disorder treatment. To participate, health care professionals must be employed in an outpatient primary care practice in an area of Colorado with a Health Professional Shortage Area designation and work in a Corp approved practice site. For more information, go to Colorado Health Service Corps.

Recently awarded substance use disorder providers and their new communities are listed below.

The Colorado Health Service Corps is administered by the Primary Care Office at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment with funding from the Colorado Health Foundation, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, and the state of Colorado.